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The reaction to Jamie Dixon's move to TCU are coming in and for the most part it's this: meh.
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He seems happy, folks at Pitt seem okay with it, and life goes on.
Here's one Pitt fan, writing over at The Sporting News. He's not terribly upset.
At the Post-Gazette, Ron Cook is pushing a guilty angle -Dixon should feel guilty and so should the fans and the university. It'll never be the same again!
We said yesterday that Pitt should let him go and aim higher - turns out they did just that. "They worked with TCU to negotiate a smaller buyout," according to Paul Zeise, also of the Post-Gazette. That's nice of them, sort of, but it's also sort of pushing him out the door, isn't it?
Over at TribLive, Joe Starkey is in the we-can-do-better camp.
And down in Fort Worth? Optimism is rampant. This from the Star-Telegram's story: "TCU should be able to compete for NIT berth next season."
So who's Pitt looking at and what's needed?
Pitt needs a tough, energetic coach who doesn't mind bumping heads with bigger names.
Here's a quick list: the Miller brothers, Northern Iowa's Ben Jacobson, Kevin Stallings and would-be retread Ben Howland.
He wouldn't have been a good fit, but it doesn't matter now: Stephen F. Austin's Brad Underwood took the Oklahoma State job Monday.
The A.D. is looking for a splashy hire who can recruit well, so that rules out a lot of younger coaches. If it were us we'd look at some of those guys, including Elon's Matt Metheny. He's a young coach and he's done pretty well at Elon, which is not an easy job. He's gone from 9-23 to 21-12 in 2012-13.
The last two years, with Elon moving up to the CAA, he finished 15-18 and 16-16, but come on: it's a big step up for Elon. It'd take some nerve to hire a guy who has a career record of .482, but we think he's good.
You don't have to watch his team long to understand he's a gifted coach.
One more name worth considering: UNC-Wilmington's Kevin Keatts.
It'll be fun to watch this develop. Our first choice would be Archie, and if the rumors about him wanting to coach in the ACC are true, he's a great fit.
By the way, folks in Blacksburg must be happy that the TCU and Oklahoma State jobs filled quickly, since Buzz Williams' name came up for both.
Did Malik Beasley jump too soon? Well we'll know soon enough as FSU's star freshman has declared and seems serious about it.
Since he'd already said he would, it's no surprise that Cat Barber made it official: he's going to gauge his NBA prospects.